2016 Recap – a lot of turn over, one wheel madness

Here we are having fast forwarded through another year of life.  It seems like I was just writing this recap, it seems crazy it’s time to do it again. Ok so let’s start as I always do, reviewing the goals I set last year for 2016 to see how I measured up.

Spend less money – HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA Uh no, after a very expensive 2015 instead of pulling in the spending reins the dollars were spent by the bushel but more details on this later.

Fitness goals – the 400 pound dead lift and 250 pound bench press I mentioned did not happen.  Instead my strength has had a slight decline during 2016.  I have made some progress in reestablishing endurance training.  I have been getting out at least once a week for a run for a good portion of 2016.  Cindy and I even got to run in our first race together in years in 2016, completing the 4 mile Gobble Gobble on Thanksgiving.  I did not get up to the 10K distance I mentioned as a goal.  Even though I will never say I “like” running, I like both the physical and mental benefits it provides me.  Ironically a few days ago I jacked up my knee in such a manner that running will likely be off the menu for a little while.

Cindy’s fitness career – I mentioned I was excited seeing what Cindy does with her personal trainer certification. In 2016 she has taught classes at a number of different venues and has received pretty much universally positive feedback from people that take her class.  She really has the perfect personality for this type of work.

Home improvements – I mentioned the possibilities of a new roof, new appliances, and a new TV for 2016.  I delivered on two of those three items, more on that later.

Quality of life improvements due to the subtraction of club race timer from my resume – Getting away from my role as the club race timer was as freeing as I imagined it would be.  I liked it so much that late in the year I shut down my side timing gig as well.

Road trip – No road trip in 2016, the first year in a long time that I have not driven out of state.

Ok so I am not going to review my hundreds of blog entries from this year to give you a comprehensive recap so if I miss something, forgive me.  This is totally off the cuff as far as what stands out to me as the most significant things from the last year.

Ok so as I mentioned there was HUGE bubble of spending this year and it was all set in motion by one event, my decision that I no longer needed the SSR in my life.  Within the first couple months of the year I hashed out a plan in my head that if I sold the SSR, which I paid off a few months prior, it could set me up with buying a new Tacoma which in turn would also allow me to sell the old Tacoma.

Being ok with selling the SSR was something that took a long time to reconcile in my head.  I was SO excited when I bought it and when I separated from Ali it almost felt like it was me and the truck against the world, facing a vast unknown of bachelor life together.  However over the last couple years the SSR spent more and more time just sleeping in the garage.  My attachment to Cindy seemed to result in a loss of attachment to the truck in some way.

So anyway, when I finally decided to pull the trigger on selling the truck I was very fortunate to find an eager buyer, referred from my connections with the SSR Fanatics forum.  He paid my asking price, giving me a large lump of cash to play with.  That lump of cash has funded the majority of my spending throughout the year.  It has helped pay for the new Tacoma, the new appliances, Cindy’s ring, the tv, and my electric unicycle collection.

The 2016 Tacoma was the first new vehicle I have purchased since 2007.  Finding the one I wanted took some patience.  Finding a dealer that was willing to sell it for a reasonable price took some driving.  Cindy and I drove all the way over to Delray to a Toyota dealer that participated in the Costco auto buying program, a service I would highly recommend.  I paid thousands less than any other dealer was willing to sell me the vehicle for.

So far I have loved the truck and I’ve done a number of small upgrades to it.  There have been a few small issues along the way with phantom idiot lights and weird shifting.  The idiot light problem actually still is not resolved but even with these little annoyances, overall I am very, very happy with my new truck.

Buying the truck meant I had to say goodbye to my long time trusted 1999 Tacoma which I had owned for around 16 years.  The old truck which had been through many, many wars with me served me well to the very end, bringing more money on it’s sale than I expected at first.  It was definitely a sad moment when I saw it drive away from the house one final time.

So a good chunk of that money went to replacing all of our kitchen appliances with slick, modern Samsung units that Cindy and I have really been pleased with.  It made the kitchen a better place to be.

Another piece of the money went to buying a new 70 inch 4K TV and Cindy’s engagement ring, which was purchased the same day.  At first I felt a bit disappointed to “settle” for a 70 inch tv after having a 73 inch DLP set for so many years.  However once we reinstalled a shelf in the AV nook above the set everything looked balanced and just how it should be.  I was glad that Ali agreed to take the 73 incher for her large great room.  It is still serving her well.

Our animal situation this year has had an interesting twist.  The chickens continue to be a source of fun and smiles for us every day despite their declining egg production and affinity for destroying sections of the yard randomly.  We did have the tragedy of losing our biggest chicken, Cocoa, to a coyote attack during the year.  In response I installed a larger, 8 camera security DVR to give us almost total surveillance coverage of the coop and yard.  We also changed some procedural stuff to minimize another attack which thankfully has not occurred since.

Of course the biggest animal change is our adoption of Elsa, something that was totally unplanned and came about during a random visit to Rural King. Cindy had been wanting to adopt a dog for awhile but I was not sharing in her desire just yet.  For whatever reason, I relented that day and Elsa became a member of our family.  Having a dog in the house full time again has definitely been an adjustment but it hasn’t been too bad overall.  Sadie and her get along so well and Elsa has learned that the chickens are something to be seen but not pursued.  Elsa has brought huge smiles and happiness to Cindy which was the core goal.  Of course I love her too.

My health in 2016 overall wasn’t bad.  I had no major illnesses and have continued my never ending fitness journey.  Like I mentioned earlier my strength on some key movements has gone down a bit but my endurance training has improved so I will call that a wash.

My YouTube channel hit some big milestones in 2016, crossing 1000 subscribers and a million views.  Since that point things have accelerated.  It took me 3-4 years to reach those numbers.  Since hitting those numbers I am now at almost 1.3 million views and 1500 subscribers.  The increase in activity has also impacted my ad revenue from the channel.  For the first time ever I am getting a check from Google every month (need minimum of $100 in revenue) and each month is bigger than the last.  I added a LOT of videos to the channel in 2016 after a lot fewer postings in 2015.

I had my fair amount of rants and annoyances in 2016.  The biggest and most annoying was the national park service convicting me for a drone flight in Yellowstone which was done solely from a YouTube video I had posted.  The ordeal was so frustrating and infuriating for me.  The entire thing was basically just a shakedown for money and was handled in such a ridiculous manner that I can feel my blood starting to boil just typing this.  The only consolation I had was the judge reduced the proposed fine by $250 because he believed I had no idea about the flight restriction ahead of time. (I didn’t)  It still wound up costing me nearly $1000.  The incident sort of killed my drone desire, I hardly flew at all in 2016 and actually gave my Phantom to Randall during his last visit.  I do plan to get back on the wagon in 2017 as Cindy bought me a compact DJI Mavic for Christmas which should show up sometime in February.

I also had not one but two annoying run ins with ID theft in 2016. First someone cloned my credit card to go on a gas station and supermarket spending spree.  A few weeks later another person tried to apply for an Amazon Store credit card in my name.  Their attempt revealed my social security number is out in the wild.  My reaction to this was to freeze my credit with all three agencies so NOONE can extend credit in my name unless I unfreeze it temporarily.  This is a move I would recommend for anyone looking to protect their credit.

I got to engage in a lot more WoW than I have in recent years.  This is a direct result of not having race timing responsibilities gobbling up large portions of my free time.

As I mentioned earlier I decided to totally get out of the race timing business in 2016.  I only did a few small events on my own but I found that I just wasn’t enjoying it, even with not having the running club headaches as part of the equation.  I timed my final event in October and sold all of my equipment, creating yet another bulge of cash which helped fund my new obsession launched this year, electric unicycles.

Things started out innocently enough.  Amazon was running a special on something called a Segway MiniPro, a refined version of the infamous hoverboard from 2015.  Cindy and I both loved the riding experience on the two wheel bot.  Cindy seemed to master riding the MiniPro even faster than I did.  The fun level was so high that I started looking at how we could BOTH have an electric powered transportation device to ride.

I came across this thing called an electric unicycle.  Like the MiniPro, it used internal gyros to balance a rider front to back.  However unlike the MiniPro, it had only a single wheel, meaning left and right balance was up to you.  I saw a ton of videos of people riding EUCs around easily.  My logic was since Cindy picked up the MiniPro so easily, she would be able to ride an electric unicycle nearly as easily.  I pulled the trigger on a Ninebot One E+ on Ebay, the EUC madness had begun.

Well to make a long story short, riding an EUC proved to be far more difficult that either of us anticipated.  After a painful fall, Cindy swore off of learning which was a bummer for me since I initially assumed  Cindy would be the one to be the primary EUC rider because of her natural balance and coordination.  I then realized that if I didn’t want to have a $600 paperweight I needed to learn how to ride.

The learning process for me was very painful early on.  With noone in person to help train me I relied on YouTube videos and forums to help steer me through the process.  It felt like trying to ride a bike for the first time.  Eventually after a lot of effort I got the basics down and was able to ride effectively.  It was one of the prouder moments I have had in recent memory.  Being able to do something that at first seemed damn near impossible just felt good.

I have not only put in hundreds of miles on a single wheel since, I have brought other people into the fun.  Katie, Daniel, and Randall all now are EUC enthusiasts.  Even Cindy has been getting back into learning and I think in 2017 she will be riding around on one wheel a lot more than two as well.  It’s hard to explain why riding an EUC is so much fun to someone that has never done it.  You just feel free and wind up exploring areas and things you never would via any other method of transportation. My obsession with the unicycles has resulted in a somewhat embarrassing amount of spending on the hobby.  I really enjoy it and bringing others into the hobby only increases that feeling.

So that wraps up my off the cuff highlights of the year, let me come up with some goals for 2017.

Home improvements – the roof will still need to be addressed, not sure if it will happen next year or not.  At some point I’d like to have the lanai resurfaced with something less boring and requiring less paint than the stock concrete. We will probably be replacing the bathroom vanity in the master bathroom as well.

Financial goals – I am now getting in striking range of paying off my primary mortgage.  I may be able to knock that out before this time next year which would be awesome.  Once the primary mortgage is hammered out I can use that money towards burning down my home equity loan and also possibly getting Cindy a new Prius to replace hers which will be crossing 200k miles pretty soon.

Fitness – I will surely continue to do my best to fight the ravages of time that seem to always be pulling me back.  Regular running hopefully will continue and participating in another race or two this year would be a nice addition.

Travel – I would hope to resume our yearly road trips although the addition of Elsa may cause us to realign what sort of trip that can be. Sure would be fun to bring the EUCs along to explore areas to a new level.

I have an odd interest in buying a beater Jeep Wrangler.

I hope I can keep growing my YouTube channel to the point where it legitimately is bringing part time job money into the household.  I truly enjoy making my unicycle vlogs, auto maintenance, and other content I post in there.  A number of people express the content either really helped them or that they just find it entertaining.  Both scenarios make me feel good.

Every year the goal of day to day life being peaceful and happy is always a big thing.  This year there have been some challenges that I have not always done a great job of handling.  Self improvement is something that has no finish line, it’s one long race that you keep  moving forward with throughout your life.  Cindy’s love and devotion helps me keep going in that pursuit.

As the New Year approaches I hope you too can take a time to reflect back and focus forward so you can learn from the past and work towards whatever it is that brings happiness into your life.  Happy New Year!